CAIR: Media Urged to Drop Term ‘Islamist’ in New Year

Herald Online:

By Council on American-Islamic Relations

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2013 — Term ‘currently used in an almost exclusively pejorative context’

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today distributed a commentary urging media outlets to drop the term “Islamist” because it is “currently used in an almost exclusively pejorative context.”

CAIR distributed the column below, titled “Media Urged to Drop Term ‘Islamist’ in New Year,” through ISLAM-OPED, a syndication service designed to offer an American Muslim perspective on current political, social and religious issues.

ISLAM-OPED commentaries are offered free-of-charge to one media outlet in each market area. Permission for publication will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. (CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com)

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ISLAM-OPED: Media Urged to Drop Term ‘Islamist’ in New Year

By: Ibrahim Hooper

[Ibrahim Hooper is national communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization. He may be contacted at: ihooper@cair.com A photo of Ibrahim Hooper is available at: http://tinyurl.com/hooperphoto ]

As many people make promises to themselves to improve their lives or their societies in the coming year, here is a suggested New Year’s resolution for media outlets in America and worldwide: Drop the term “Islamist.”

The Associated Press (AP) added the term to its influential Stylebook in 2012. That entry reads: “Islamist — Supporter of government in accord with the laws of Islam. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi.”

The AP says it sought input from Arabic-speaking experts and hoped to provide a neutral perspective by emphasizing the “wide range” of religious views encompassed in the term.

13 Responses to CAIR: Media Urged to Drop Term ‘Islamist’ in New Year

The obvious retort is to say “OK — but only when your crowd drops “Islamophobia”
A phobia is an irrational fear. There’s absolutely nothing irrational about being anti-Islam.
I call it common sense, and preservation of my way of life and culture.

They don’t want us to know what they are up to and they know that we can’t warn each other if we cannot even name the enemy. If Mr. Hooper has his way there will be no politically correct word that people will be able to use when describing the people that planned the attacks on 9/11. How’s that for psychological warfare?

Unfortunately, I can see a great many teachers, for instance, taking Hooper’s suggestion and deciding that “Islamist” must go on the same trash heap as the n-word and others, simply because Muslims find it “offensive”. The Islamists are winning. They have Egypt now and will soon have Libya and all the other victims of the Arab Spring. When the war finally ends in Syria, who do you suppose will be there to head-up the new government? Soon the Islamic Republic will have an atomic bomb. They are winning and that seems almost OK with us. It certainly is for Barrack Obama…

These filthy, sly, taqiyya-touting bastards are trying to manipulate our language again. Personally. I use the word Islamist to distinguish between violent untrustworthy ‘true’ Muslims (Islamists) and non-violent moderate ‘false’ Muslims (Muslims) – but hey, if they want us to stop using the word Islamist, then I’ll be happy to call a spade a spade and call them all ‘Muslims’, after all, that is what they all presumably are!

A member of the Saudi Arabian military in the U.S. for a training mission has been charged with raping a boy in a Strip hotel on New Year’s Eve.

Mazen Alotaibi, a 23-year-old sergeant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, was arrested Dec. 31 and accused of assaulting a 13-year-old boy in a Circus Circus hotel room bathroom.

According to a Las Vegas police report, Alotaibi was on the sixth floor of the hotel about 7:30 a.m. when he pulled the boy into his room. Three other men were in the room smoking marijuana, the report said.

The boy told police that none of the men spoke English.

Alotaibi later told police he offered the boy money for sex, and when he refused, he raped the boy, the report said.

The boy was able to leave the room as Alotaibi was getting dressed. He told hotel security about the incident and was taken to University Medical Center for treatment and testing by a sexual assault nurse.

The exam confirmed sexual trauma, the report said.

[…]Alotaibi told police he was drinking Hennessy all night and was drunk when he met the boy. He first denied allegations, but later admitted he “put his penis in his mouth for just a couple of seconds” and his penis “accidentally” went into the boy’s rectum.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he doesn’t believe the war in Syria will lead to tensions within Australia’s ethnic communities.

Members of non-English speaking communities have reportedly been among more than 100 Australians believed to have travelled to Syria to fight in the conflict, born of an anti-government uprising in early 2011.

Senator Carr says he cannot comment on Australian Federal Police investigations into Australians who may have engaged in combat in Syria, and warns that doing so breaks Australian law.

But he says he’s confident members of migrant communities understand they shouldn’t participate in the Syrian conflict.

“We’re in Australia. Common sense prevails. People understand that this is not a dispute for Australians to take up arms about. What we say – and this is our multiculturalism that we value so highly — is that we expect your loyalties to be to Australia and Australian interests. You can be proud of your heritage, but your loyalty has to be to Australia, and if that’s your position, taking arms in the Syrian civil war is wrong.”